By Montford                                           S.B. No. 1255
       74R7491 JSA-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to tuition at public institutions of higher education.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 54.008, Education Code, is amended by
    1-5  adding Subsection (e) to read as follows:
    1-6        (e)  The legislature in an appropriations act shall account
    1-7  for the increase in revenue attributable to the annual statutory
    1-8  tuition increases prescribed by Section 54.051(c)(2) in a way that
    1-9  does not reduce the general revenue appropriations to that
   1-10  institution.
   1-11        SECTION 2.  Section 54.051(c), Education Code, is amended to
   1-12  read as follows:
   1-13        (c)  Unless a different rate is specified by this section,
   1-14  tuition for a resident student at a general academic teaching
   1-15  institution is the greater of:
   1-16              (1)  $120 for each semester or 12-week summer session
   1-17  and $60 for each six-week summer term; or
   1-18              (2)  $32 per semester credit hour plus, for an academic
   1-19  year after the 1996-1997 academic year, an additional $2 per
   1-20  semester credit hour increase over the tuition rate for the
   1-21  preceding academic year.
   1-22        SECTION 3.  Section 54.064(a), Education Code, is amended to
   1-23  read as follows:
   1-24        (a)  A student who holds a competitive academic scholarship
    2-1  of at least $500 <$200> for the academic year or summer for which
    2-2  the student is enrolled and who is either a nonresident or a
    2-3  citizen of a country other than the United States of America is
    2-4  entitled to pay the fees and charges required of Texas residents
    2-5  without regard to the length of time the student has resided in
    2-6  Texas. The student must compete with other students, including
    2-7  Texas residents, for the academic scholarship and the scholarship
    2-8  must be awarded by a scholarship committee officially recognized by
    2-9  the administration and be approved by the Texas Higher Education
   2-10  Coordinating Board under criteria developed by the board.
   2-11        SECTION 4.  The change in law made by this Act to Section
   2-12  54.064, Education Code, applies beginning with tuition charged for
   2-13  the fall semester of 1995, except that a student awarded a
   2-14  scholarship before September 1, 1995, for a semester or term of the
   2-15  1995-1996 academic year that would have made the student eligible
   2-16  to pay resident tuition under Section 54.064 as that section
   2-17  existed on January 1, 1995, is covered by Section 54.064 as that
   2-18  section existed on January 1, 1995, for each semester or term of
   2-19  the 1995-1996 academic year for which the student receives the
   2-20  scholarship.
   2-21        SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-22  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-23  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-24  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-25  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-26  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-27  passage, and it is so enacted.